Sea-salt aerosol concentrations in the coastal zone are assessed with the numerical aerosol-transport model MACMod that applies separate aerosol source functions for open ocean and the surf zone near the sea–land transition. Numerical simulations of the aerosolconcentration as a function of offshore distance from the surf zone compare favourably with experimental data obtained during a surf zone aerosol experiment in Duck, North Carolina in autumn 2007. Based on numerical simulations, the effect of variations in aerosol production (source strength) and transport conditions (wind speed, air–sea temperature difference), we show that the surf-zone aerosols are replaced by aerosols generated over the open ocean asthe airmass advects out to sea. The contribution from the surf generated aerosol is significant during high wind speeds and high wave events, and is significant up to 30 km away from the production zone. At low wind speeds, the oceanic component dominates, except within 1–5 km of the surf zone. Similar results are obtained for onshore flow, where no further sea-salt aerosol production occurs as the airmass advects out over land. The oceanic aerosols that are well-mixed throughout the boundary layer are then more efficiently transported inland than are the surf-generated aerosols, which are confined to the first few tens of metres above the surface, and are therefore also more susceptible to the type of surface (trees or grass) that determines the deposition velocity.

Aerosol particles in coastal areas result from a complex mixing between sea spray aerosols locally generated at the sea surface by the wind-waves interaction processes and a continental component resulting from natural and/or anthropogenic sources. This paper presents a physical and chemical analysis of the aerosol data acquired from May to September 2014 in the Adriatic Sea. Aerosol distributions were measured on the Acqua Alta platform located 15 km off the coast of Venice using two Particle Measuring System probes and a chemical characterization was made using an Ion Chromatography analysis (IC). Our aim is to study both the sea-spray contribution and the anthropogenic influence in the coastal aerosol of this Mediterranean region. To this end, we focus on a comparison between the present data and the aerosol size distributions measured south of the French Mediterranean coast. For air masses of marine origin transported by southern winds on the French coast and by the Sirocco in the Adriatic, we note a good agreement between the concentrations of super-micrometer aerosols measured in the two locations. This indicates a similar sea surface production of sea-spray aerosols formed by bubble bursting processes in the two locations. In contrast, the results show larger concentrations of submicron particles in the North-Western Mediterranean compared to the Adriatic, which result probably from a larger anthropogenic background for marine conditions. In contrast, for a coastal influence, the chemical analysis presented in the present paper seems to indicate a larger importance of the anthropogenic impact in the Northern Adriatic compared to the West-Northern Mediterranean.

We study the dynamics of sea-spray particles in the coastal region of La Reunion Island on the basis of numerical simulations using the transport aerosol model MACMod (Marine Aerosol Concentration Model) and a survey of the aerosol size distributions measured at four locations at two different heights in the north-west part of the island. This allows evaluation of the performance of our model in case of pure marine air masses with implementation of accurate boundary conditions. First of all, an estimate of the aerosol concentration at 10-m height at the upwind boundary of the calculation domain is obtained using a revisited version of the MEDEX (Mediterranean Extinction) model. Estimates of the vertical profile of aerosol concentrations are then provided using aerosol data obtained at two different heights at the upwind boundary of the calculation domain. A parametrization of the vertical profiles of aerosol concentrations for maritime environment is proposed. The results are then compared to the vertical profiles of 0.532 μm aerosol particle extinction coefficient obtained from lidar data provided by the Cloud-Aerosol LIdar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) and also to the data provided by the Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET). This allows validation of the complete vertical profiles in the mixed layer and shows the validity of satellite data for determination of the vertical profiles. Two kinds of simulation were made: one without a particle advection flux at the upwind boundary of the numerical domain, whereas the second simulation was made with a particle advection flux. In the first case, the influence of the distance to the shoreline on the local sea-spray dynamics is investigated. In the second set of simulation, the particles issued from the local production in the surf zone near the shoreline are mixed with aerosols advected from the remote ocean. A good agreement between the model calculations using our boundary conditions and the data was found. The present results then attest the ability of this kind of model, as a first approach to predicting the local transport of sea-spray particles in a pure marine environment.